We Study the Landscape

Ellen hosted our gathering in October where we studied landscapes.

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) – bio

Mist Marches Across the Valley
Crossing Ohio When Poppies Bloom in Ashtabula

Robert Frost (1874-1963) – bio

The Mountain
The Road Not Taken

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) – bio

Landscape With the Fall of Icarus

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) – bio

God’s World

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) – Wordsworth Trust; poet’s bio

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud  aka The Daffodils and the Wordsworth Rap

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) – bio

The Land of the Counterpane

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) – poet’s Web page; other bio

Landscape

Hayden Carruth (1921-2008) – bio

I Know, I Remember, But How Can I Help You
Song of the Two Crows

Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) – bio

What Did I Learn in the Wars?
End of Summer in the Judean Mountains

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) – poet’s homepage; other bio

Six Significant Landscapes

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) – Wordsworth Trust; poet’s bio

Lines Composed Above Tintern Abbey

Garrett Kaoru Hongo (1951- ) – bio

Yellow Light

Read Full Post »

We Experience Poetry and the Creative Mind

As promised in my earlier post, here is a look at what Jan, Diana, and I experienced at the Academy of American Poets National Poetry Month kickoff gala  “Poetry and the Creative Mind”. Frances, we missed you and were sorry you couldn’t be with us that night. Thank you for organizing us!

The evening’s format entailed various celebrities choosing favorite poems to read. All were excellent, but Dianne Reeves was a standout as she read Queen of the Blues with all the gusto of the bluesy jazz singer that she his. A few readers departed from the printed program. I’ve made notes on poems that were listed but not read. I’ve added in the ones read that were not listed in the program except for one that Liz Smith read before reading Miniver Cheevy. I didn’t catch the poet or the title or enough of the poem to find it online. If anyone knows what poem that was, please let me know.

National Poetry Month began in 1996 and has become “the largest literary celebration in the world.” This event raised funds to support the Academy’s efforts to supply free classroom materials to more than 200,000 schools during National Poetry Month.

Yusef Komunyakaa, Former Chancellor, Academy of American Poets

Robert Hayden– Names
Robert Hayden– Sphinx
Robert Hayden– Monet’s Waterlilies

Jonathan Demme, film director

Randall Jarrell– The Lost Children

Graydon Carter, editor, Vanity Fair

Dorothy Parker– Our Office: A Hate Song

Liz Smith, gossip columnist

Langston Hughes– Let America Be America Again [updated thanks to Isabel]
Edwin Arlington Robinson– Miniver Cheevy

Phillipe de Montebello, director, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Theodore Roethke– The Geranium
Wallace Stevens– The Snow Man
Edna St. Vincent Millay– Dirge Without Music
Edgar Allan Poe– The Valley of Unrest
Ezra Pound– The Garden
W. H. Auden– Musee des Beaux Arts
Ralph Waldo Emerson– Fable
Sylvia Plath– Apprehensions [listed but not read]

Candace Bushnell, author

Gertrude Stein– Stanzas in Meditation
Gertrude Stein– From A Grammarian
Gertrude Stein– From Saving the Sentence

Robert Caro, author

Robert Frost– The Bearer of Evil Tidings
Emily Dickinson– Hope is the thing with feathers
Emily Dickinson– A Man may make a Remark
Edward Hirsch– The Branch Library
Edward Hirsch– Special Orders
Edward Hirsch– Elegy for the Jewish Villages

Dianne Reeves, jazz vocalist

Gwendolyn Brooks– A Song in the Front Yard
Gwendolyn Brooks– Queen of the Blues
James Weldon Johnson– Go Down Death

John Guare, playwright

William Carlos Williams– From Ashphodel, That Greeny Flower

Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News

Charlotte Perkins Gilman– The Anti-Suffragists
Emily Dickinson– I measure every Grief I meet
ee cummings– maggie and milly and molly and may
Langston Hughes– Dreams [omitted]

Meryl Streep, actress

Wallace Stevens– Sunday Morning
Walt Whitman– Miracles
Walt Whitman– A Noiseless Patient Spider

Read Full Post »

We Do Poetry in June…

We did do poetry in June although I am deliquent in reporting about it. Here is the list of the poems that we read.

A.J.M. Smith (1918-1981)- Canadian poet – bio  and analysis

The Sorcerer originally Not of the Dust – Smith was apparently something of a crafstmen and frequently revisited his poems. This poem was originally published in 1925 as Not of the Dust and then revised in 1954 and re-titled The Sorcerer. You can find both versions on this link about one third down the page.

Roy Campbell  (1901-1957) – South African poet – bio

The Zebras from Adamastor (1930)

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) – African American poet bio

Sympathy – inspiration behind Maya Angelou’s autobiography called I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou  (1928 – ) – bio

Why the Caged Bird Sings – an answer or mirror to Dunbar

A Brave and Startling Truth

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) – bio

Somnambulisma

Angels Surrounded by Paysans

Celia Thaxter (1836-1894) – bio

The Sandpiper

Steven Crane (1871-1900) – bio and analysis

Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War Is Kind

Pablo Neruda – bio

Ode to a Lemon

Ode to a Watch in the Night

Achibald MacLeish (1892-1982) – bio

Summer of the Year

Winter is Another Country

Robert Graves (1895-1985) – bio

Counting the Beats

William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) – bio

Madam, Life’s a Piece in Bloom

Read Full Post »

We Begin

Our poetry club began on Sunday, March 4…and what a kickoff it was! Our theme was favorite poem or favorite poet. All nine of us took turns reading our favorites which included:

e e cummings – bio

 my father moved through dooms of love

Robert Frost – bio

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Joyce Kilmer – bio

 Trees

Christopher Marlowe – bio

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Sir Walter Ralegh – bio

The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd

Dalia Ravikovitch – bio

In the year to come, in the days to come
Pride 

Laura Riding – bio

The World and I

Theodore Roethke – bio

I Knew a Woman
The Waking

Wallace Stevens – bio

The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm

Read Full Post »